We live in rural Kentucky, which feels like either all options are buffets or grocery store misfits when you pick out vegetables. When we moved here, I had unrealistic expectations of vegetable stands and full farmers’ markets. What it actually is is a small community that grows corn, soy, and cows, and if you don’t have your own garden, you are at the mercy of the grocery store, wrinkled and sprayed produce or what the Amish community grows. And they grow great food.
Here’s the catch for eating what others grow for us. We are fighting illness. We are trying to be whole foods and use what we eat to help fight the illness. My husband is in treatment, and we really are trying to control what we eat, and that’s through grocery store food. I can’t in good faith use all the chemicals that growers use to fight ALL the bugs that eat everything in Kentucky. It’s honestly a petting zoo out there.
Naturally, growers reach for chemicals, and they aren’t always organic, and most ranchers want to grow the fastest and biggest they can for the market. All these are understandable but out of our reach for health control.
The Kentucky Garden Journey
This is why I started growing our own food in Kentucky. I don’t have the time for getting a beef cow right now or hogs, though we have done pigs in the past, and it was a great experience. Butchering chickens was hard (too much labor right now) for me on my own. I’m not set up for that yet. I can feed my hens non-GMO feed from the local Amish mill, which is a blessing.
I will write more on the chickens, I promise, but ask me questions if you would like
This leads to what I can completely control. The garden. I can pick non gmo organic seeds, I can work in my own compost, and I sure as heck fire try companion planting, some raised beds, grow on trellies, and use row covers to keep pests from eating everything. I can’t control the weather, but I can use it in my favor.
Not the End, Only the Beginning
So that’s why the garden matters more than a hobby here. If you’re in a similar situation — rural, limited options, trying to feed your family better with what you actually have — you’re in the right place. I’m figuring it out in real time and sharing all of it. Truly, the good, the bad, and the honest life we try to lead.
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